Raphaël Beysang Noah Rouge Magnum 2020

Noah Rouge is 100% Gamay sourced from Sarcey, a village on a high plateau in the southwest corner of the Beaujolais appellation, set between the Monts Beaujolais and the Monts Lyonnais. The granite soils there carry significant deposits of quartz and feldspar. Raphaël Beysang named this wine after his son Noah, and it is produced exclusively in magnum format.

The 2020 growing season in Beaujolais was warm and largely frost- and hail-free, with a drought-driven reduction in yields that concentrated the fruit. Harvests began as early as late August. The resulting wines are known for ripe, round fruit with genuine freshness and notable aging potential. Whole-bunch maceration runs for two weeks, followed by 15 months of aging in barrel. No sulfur is added at any stage, and the wine is bottled unfiltered.

Raphaël Beysang and Émélie Hurtubise farm approximately 7 hectares in Saint-Germain-Nuelles in the far south of Beaujolais, closer to Lyon than to Mâcon. They farm without synthetic chemistry, relying on copper and sulfur treatments at minimal doses, supplemented by biodynamic plant preparations including nettle and compost tea. Soils across their holdings vary from granite to limestone and alluvium. From 2021, they began working the soils with a horse.

All wines from Raphaël and Émélie are bottled in liter or magnum format. The cellar approach is zero-zero: native yeast fermentations, no additions, no filtration, no sulfur. Noah Rouge is one of the most structured expressions in the lineup, carrying the depth that whole-bunch maceration and extended barrel aging bring to Gamay grown on granite.